Arlo and Janis by Jimmy Johnson for October 10, 2017

I have a drawer full of different size batteries and I have only one remote – but 4-5 other devices that use them!

Rechargeable NiMH is the way to go.

Rechargeable batteries are great! AA especially!

This reminds me of phone chargers. Why does every phone have to have its own unique charger?

Speaking of remotes, am I the only one in here who is old enough to remember TVs, etc. before the days of remotes?

Jarvisloop…. to both your questions…

1) They don’t.

I used to believe the manufacturer hype… only use the charger that came with your phone, or one made by them.

But after a couple of failed ones, over the years, and realising that the ones my mobile service provider tried to sell me were universal anyway, not my phone brand,

plus having a need for spare chargers in other places,

I started buying universal chargers.

Just be sure they’re reputable enough brands or stores to trust that they’ll shut off and not overcharge your phone.

You DO need your charger to provide enough power for the size of your battery, or it’ll be slow.

And you need the right cord… micro USB, the newer USB2, the ancient mini USB… or the right generation Apple one.

Plus, there are a few new wrinkles if they matter to you…

I.E.I’m using a great $20 Samsung branded fast charger, that will charge any Android but only fast-charge Samsung phones that support that technology.

Sorry if that’s too much answer!

And 2)

While corded remotes with a couple of buttons were invented in the 50’s, most people didn’t have one till at least the 70’s, or till cordless ones came out in the 80’s.

Dollars to dimes 80% of GoComics posters remember life before that, cos we’re mostly baby boomers or older.

“Round flat battery like a coin” is the recipe to take the wrong battery home…

I need a coin-shaped battery for my glucometer, but I need to know the model number to get one that’s right.

Don’t forget the Energizer Rabbit.

You forgot the remote with the AAAA batteries. Yes, there is such a animal !

Don’t forget her ‘silver bullet’, Arlo!

Well, kiddies, I was 12 when we got our first set in 1948. A 12 inch GE. Color Tv began in 1953 but didn’t take off until the early 1960’s. In the early 1960s an affluent friend had an RCA 21 inch color set with a wired remote control. What a weird, inconvenient setup, but it did work.

I remember the first wireless remotes. They were noisy because they controlled an internal motor in the TV which manually rotated the channel dial- click, click, click until it reached the channel you had selected.

Buy a universal remote. You can get a fairly good one for $40 or so. Then you only need one type of batteries, typically AA or AAA, not those stupid button batteries. But keep the other “dedicated” remotes in a drawer somewhere— with the batteries removed (so they don’t leak over time)— because it can happen that you’d need to do some special reset or other operation that you can’t do with the universal remote.